Players on the University of Minnesota football squad were each issued iPads for studying, watching video of practice and plays, and notes for meetings. (Photo courtesy University of Minnesota athletic department)

University of Minnesota football players can have their playbooks readily available, they can get game or practice video instantly streamed from coaches or teammates, they can do class work and chat it up on social media sites — they can do that all with one device now.

All they have to do is pick up their iPads.

Gophers associate athletics director David Benedict said Tuesday that the Gophers decided this summer to get 240 iPads to be used by athletes.

The football players have already received 120 iPads for the entire roster. They include customized covers with the player’s name on them. The other 120 iPads will go out to female athletes. The next step beyond that is to have a pool of iPads available to male and female athletes to check out for certain needs. Benedict didn’t know estimated cost for the entire project.

“We think it’s going to be great, not just for football but also for all the student-athletes that get them,” Benedict said. “Hopefully, in the next two to three years we can provide them to all our student-athletes.”

Last year, Ohio State announced it would distribute 500 iPads to its athletes with plans of spending $400,000 in two years to give them to all 1,100 athletes in each sport.

In February, Maryland said it would purchase iPads for all of its 500 athletes, at a cost of approximately $300,000.

In August, Wisconsin and Illinois football players received iPads. Michigan State’s football team has made iPads available to many players this year. The entire Spartans basketball team already had them.

Global Apptitude out of Baltimore made iPad playbooks first available to the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens in 2011. The technology has spread throughout pro football, college sports and even internationally with rugby, Global Apptitude managing partner Randy Fusee said.

“After our first year of business, we started marketing it to college teams,” said Fusee, who began working with Ohio State, Syracuse and Duke last year. “They are really now starting to adopt it this year. The most important thing for a football team is a link to the players. Coaches have the ability to give information and communicate to their players in real time. They aren’t restricted to walking to the facility to watch film or having a playbook at their side all of the time.”

Gophers football coach Jerry Kill met with Benedict and AD Norwood Teague when the latter two arrived on campus in July 2012. He had a wish list of things he said the program needed to compete with the rest of the conference and the country.

“This was one of the things that was on his list,” Benedict said of iPads for players. “It didn’t happen right away. There’s obviously a financial component, and you have to budget and plan around that. Fortunately, in the last year we were able to figure out a way that we could step into this.”

Senior safety Brock Vereen said the iPads have given players more opportunities to learn and improve from last season.

“That is a perfect example of coach Kill taking care of his players,” Vereen said. “(Coaches) can send out a memo and everybody gets it on their iPads. It’s a way to connect with coaches. I could upload something for all the (defensive backs) to see, the whole team to see. I can send something to coach, whether it’s videos, notes or plays. It’s my playbook, but it helps out the school aspect a lot, too.”

This summer, the Gophers’ secondary was sent a folder on their iPads with a series of 15 videos featuring defensive backs from programs such as Alabama and Michigan State — and even NFL teams.

“I can call the video guys and be like, ‘I want this shared to them,’ ” Gophers defensive backs Jay Sawvel said. “Within an hour, they get an email that this is in their folder. It’s a tremendous tool. But bottom line is that all of that only works as much as guys use it. And we’re pretty fortunate right now because a lot of guys we coach in the secondary are students of what they do. So you have a lot of feedback from them. Guys would call me in the summer at night and say, ‘Hey, what about this? Or I was watching this.’ ”

All of the offensive and defensive plays installed in fall camp this year are available on the iPads. Right after practice, players will get updated video of their reps. As quickly as 15 to 20 minutes, they can see where breakdowns happened and mistakes were made.

Sawvel said his players entered camp having analyzed the issues that cost the team in their bowl-game loss to Texas Tech last year.

“We recognize splits better, what’s going to happen if a motion happens. Our checks are better and quicker,” he said. “It leads to less communication and less breakdowns. I think the thing is that we’re trying from a technology standpoint to be at a forefront or right at a cutting edge.”

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